RTP

Arab-eeehsque? *cough cough* bad, bad.. Naaah... But actually it's true. I have been conditioned like that! Downloads ought to be free, I never payed for a download ever in my life! Only physical media cost money ... non-physical media ought to be free! At least that's how my mind is conditioned. Paying for downloads ... feels cocky to me. Yeah, it does, I can't do anything against it! I'd feel like a cock shopping for digital downloads ... I'd freakin' get it off p2p ... and I don't care about lossless! Only buying CDs is buying music for me ... yeah, really, I kinda want to have something physical in my hands, something to touch, to see and feel where my money went! The rest is some unserious shit. Yeah, that's the right term! When I buy a release on CD, I feel like I take it serious, I invest money to have this in physical form and not only in cocky digital! And when I have a release only in digital form, with nothing to touch, nothing to grab, nothing to see, read, feel, even smell if I felt like it ... then it doesn't feel serious to me! Only unserious releases, stuff that I don't really care about, that's what I have in digital form only! I have some albums lying around here that I didn't even listen to ... because they're digital, I don't care about digital and I also don't care about these releases! And I'm sorry, that's how I'm conditioned and that's how I feel about it, I can't do anything against it and as long as there are physical media to buy and listen to -- and there are lots -- I'll buy them physically! That's how it is. You can call me cocky, but it won't change this, I just don't feel comfortable with paying for digital downloads...

Sounds like a good intention, but I bet it would end up hyping just the newest fullon killargh artists. Not to mention three full page ads about the new fancy CompactSticks, financed by Psyshop Summa summarum: I bet it would be of too little interest for me. Maybe there'd be a proggy section, but the artists and releases I really care about would be featured just in a niche. Not to mention that there aren't that many... Ergo: if you brought one out, I'd seek for free issues on Parties, but I'd not buy one. Just the way I do it with every electronic music magazine...

I don't even try to keep up. I've got my pool of preferred artists, with those few I keep up ... and from time to time I take a peek across the borders of my well-known music territory and maybe discover something new. That's my way of "keeping up". And when some release is good, people talk about it anyway and when I hear of it, I check out samples or something ... just to know how it sounds. That way I somewhat keep up and know what's hot these days... I don't care too much of keeping up though. Better to discover an old but good release than to discover a new but bad one

Ummm ... there already is Revolve Magazine: http://www.revolvemagazine.co.uk/ ... and it's not free... Doesn't seem to be a hit though. I have three issues ... and read some articles in them, but I'm not very interested... And for german speakers there's the Mushroom (because its "international versions" are a cruel joke). This one I have more issues and also read a bit ... I sometimes get it for free on parties... I would not pay for a magazine though. The magazines don't really cover what I'm interested in ... just one or two interesting articles in an issue is not a reason to buy. That's what I have this Psynews forum for ... to get latest info what's hot in the scene and have a chat about it I also like metal and would never buy a magazine. The latest infos and stuff can also be found in label catalogues ... a friend of mine gets those, especially the Napalm Records one is good. That's what the psy scene would need: label catalogues! But our labels are too small

Kraftwerk - The Man Machine Not exactly psy, but the addictive flanger on the vibrating synth line is what I didn't get out of my head today! Even more funny because I was at the doc today and such ... lots of medicinal thinking about man and machine in some way... Definitely the track of the day!

Yeah, Shiva Chandra is great ... the new stuff isn't appreciated by that many anymore though. I didn't like it a lot aswell some time ago (especially the recent output), but I got to see it needs time to grow and now I love it But if you dig a little, you'll find some threads ... also one about Prime Time Plastix (I remember that one). Shiva Chandra caused some discussion by venturing away from oldschool into his characteristic regular style that was appreciated by some and disliked by some. But now he ventures into minimal electro territories anyway, away from psy...

I absoultely agree ... I can't stand it either. I don't quite get the fascination of it ... "poum, poum, poum, poum..." the concept is just too retarded to waste a second thought about IMO. I don't get why so many people can like this. Even hardcore is better and I freckin' HATE hardcore! Although I admit I kinda liked some Thunderdome back in the days. But I don't see anything parallel between this stuff and that stuff

Off the top of my head, no particular order: Atmos - 46Daz Shiva Chandra - Pieces (also "Piece S") Anthony Rother - My Name Is Telekraft Agent 17 & DJ Bakke - Purple Sparks Audiomatrixx - Smooth & Present Eat Static - Lo-Ride Sloucher Ticon - Models on Cocaine Rockets & Ponies - Chinese Massage Human Blue - Lone Ranger oh and as a little non-psy honorable mention bonus: Korpiklaani - Keep on Galloping

Yep, me too... Only got one chill album this year (Eat Static) ... and whilst that one isn't awful I still didn't like it so much to mention it in a toplist. But I bet in some months I'll get the Distant System one and will see that it's super great

Ah? Care to explain (maybe he doesn't care or he would have done it already)? Maybe he's just a troll idiot? But maybe it's too smooth for him and he wants psychedelic madness? That is well put: Really well put ... I love this type of warm music ... and I don't like the other type of music (Hallucionogen or whatever) that much actually, I have come to this conclusion although it comes good on parties ... this clearly proves I'm the ecstasy type and not the LSD type... Whatever, for me this is an excellent release that once more delivers a punch against all the people who bitch and moan about how bad everything has become. That's because it shows that there still can be great music in this scene which is modern and doesn't go back to the roots (as newschool)! And at the same time it redefines the progressive genre which has become kinda generic aswell ... a breeze of fresh air for everyone. For me it's actually the other way round. It's 9/10 ... and if you took out the vocals it would be 7.5! That's because the vocals are GREAT! Really, they fit well here. Normally I don't like vocals, they make the music sound cheesy, but in this one they are great because they are used well. Really. Some people just think because they throw vocals in the track is good ... and that's mostly when I find the vocals bad. But here not. That's because they are used wisely and creatively just in the right way. Examples? In the first track the sampled voice is absolutely brillant IMO. The female singing in the second track is great aswell. Third one is masterpiece anyway. In the fourth one the vocals are great because they are transformed into a rhythm. In the fifth one they fit well IMO even though some call this cheesy already -- only the dude that sings "The Pain!" stuff maybe doesn't fit that well, but still great. And so on... No bad vocals here. On the contrary: this is an example of how vocals should be used!

I got People of Earth ... if that's any help...

I heard Marco Menichelli is very hard to drink under the table About the music ... yeah, it's more or less mediocre. I don't have anything against them, have seen them live already aswell and they were really good ... but I don't need to have it often. The term "good in low doses" hits the nail.

I'd rather have compared it to books ... real books and ebooks (on CompactSticks ... with a reading device ), I'll always prefer to read "real" books... I grant you the argument that the CD might be not applicable for your scenario. But I don't have this kind of scenario. I put CD in and listen, that's my scenario. So frankly I don't really care about this... Vinyl consists of even more plastic (mass-wise) than a CD ... so I wouldn't exactly name it environmentally friendly. And don't forget that the production of computer parts and memory chips is fostering resource wars in Africa for the metals in these chips ... plus it generates lots of waste aswell. I, however, don't want to discuss what format is the best for the environment since I am no hippie and only care for my own practical needs. And for these the vinyl is best and the CD is second best. Third best is MiniDisc (yes, still although the format is declared dead everywhere, it's not, I'm still going running with my MD player ), fourth best is cassette tape. And after cassette tape there come the CompactSticks.

S-Range - Broadcast Atmos - Rebirth of Cavanough Matenda - Bonaca Matenda - Sophisticated Mind Prex - R.F.N. Chris Pointdexter - Tuf Tuf and I second Human Blue - Proggy Froggy

yep, I definitely agree ... it should be a download and not a USB stick oh and I don't think Psyshop has enough power to convert the whole scene to CompactSticks ... the customers, that's us, we will decide! I don't quite agree with this. If I had that many CDs as in that pic, then maybe yes ... but as of now I have maybe two rows of one rack, which is not that much... I gotta admit that physical sound carriers have some sort of fascination to me ... especially CDs and vinyls because you gotta be careful to them. What many people percieve as a hassle, to treat their stuff with the necessary care so that it doesn't get scratches, is actually a pleasure to me. I like to take the CD out of its case slowly and put it very carefully into the player. I don't know, but I value it a lot and I get sad when I buy used CDs which were not treated with care and are scratched. But it's not the physical medium I'm attached so much, it's not a physical fetishism, I rather think of the music ... when I put a CD into my hifi, I put music into it. And this music I like to treat with care because that way I show respect to it. When I don't respect the music, I don't treat the CD with any care ... also vinyl. I got vinyl or CDs which I almost scratch with intention, because I don't give a flying fk about the stuff that's on them... This is why I also get sad when I see scratched CDs. Their owners obviously didn't give the music respect, otherwise they'd have treated it with more care. It's all about the music, never about the object itself. With CompactStick (or digital downloads too) the times of care and the times of respect in that form are over for me. And that's the sorta sentimental reason why I don't want these Sticks (or downloads). Together with the practical reasons there are too many disadvantages for me so that I won't buy one, even for 6 bonus tracks of one of my favourite artists. Although my last word on this isn't spoken definitely yet. Maybe a used one will do sometime...

heard of this one... Lone Ranger is one helluva track!

no, no ... I guess it's not the intention that you are DJing with the sticks, but DJing with laptop with a harddrive where the data of the sticks has been ported on. I think it's intended like that: you buy the stick, put the contents on your HD, store the stick in a shelf as a backup and that's it - you continue with the data on your HD and you can also DJ with it ... just like a beatport download, but in hardware. For the people that have their entire music collection on PC and rip all CDs instantly to their HD this might be a really cool thing. For the mass of users out there that still listen conventionally to CDs on their hifi or DJ with vinyl or whatever this stick just stands for more hassle and so they'll probably not widely accept it as a good thing. And the mass of mobile music users will probably rather download the files from the net. The question is, are enough of these PC CD-rip music people in our scene to make this product established? Obviously the inventors think that this question has to be answered with a yes.

that's nicely put ... a CD has a sort of romanticism connected to it indeed ... which is also a big argument of mine against the CompactStick... but on the other hand it is actually also a reason why I would like a CompactStick now ... I don't want the futuristic, synthetic sound of today to be tied to the same old romanticism format that already millions of other albums were released on ... the new sound is something that doesn't belong into these dimly lit used-CD stores with cardboard boxes and their cellar-like smell anymore, something that I inevitably connect with CDs once they're around in my shelf longer and gathered a little dust... The modern sound of now deserves something modern: little music sticks! Music modules. That's already like in these futuristic books where they store everything on little crystals ... only that it's not crystals in our case, it's CompactSticks. But the big number of disadvantages that come with this totally outweigh the nice futuristic concept visions. I don't want a workaraound to listen to the sound on my hifi and I don't want to rearrange my shelf. I don't want to support a waste of resources when there's a much easier way to get the files over the net.

Yes, happy new year everybody Although my new year here began with horrible Alien Project fullon Let's hope that's not what awaits us music-wise...

That's a very nice summary there, Rino. Indeed, this year has been quite nice, music-wise. Hope it continues that way in the next year.

hey, thanks for digging it up, this sounds interesting... So this CompactStick is far from a standard ... but SlotMusic neither. However, I'd find the idea with the SD card + USB adaptor better, then you wouldn't have to transfer it over PC if you wanted to listen to it on a walkman cellphone for example. That makes the whole thing at least a little bit easier to handle. But why did these idiots not put wav files on the card? If it had wav files and all the other content then it would be better than the CompactStick. Oh and the packaging of SlotMusic is gruesome ... I'd lose that little SD card in no time ... the CompactStick can always be stored in its case and filed like a CD, that's not optimal aswell since a lot of room is lost, but it's at least better than SlotMusic, that way I at least wouldn't lose the damn stick. Anyway, it looks like we will get a number of variations of basically the same approach, none like the other and in the end we have a salad and the support for every format alone is too weak so none of them will stand long ... that's probably how it's going to be.

Correct. My soundsystem has no way to play a CompactStick without somewhat annoying workarounds, I'd have to burn the stuff on a CD - in CD format since it can't understand mp3 (older soundsystem that is ), that means I wouldn't even get all songs on one CD in the Atmos case. I'd have to burn 2 CDs. And then, where would I organize the CDrs? I'd practically need the room of three CD cases (one for the Compactstick in its case, two for CDrs) in my shelf just to be able to get the sound on the hifi? That's just not cool. Hey, good article ... and with a well put sentence in it, which I may quote because it's so true: "This seems like a terribly wasteful and roundabout way to download a bunch of files!" Indeed... Ah, it's not only for our scene? Interesting. But if this would be intended to go out big, why start it off in our scene (it definitely started off here ... there's no other release on CompactStick than the ones Psyshop offers)? There is not that much money to be made. I think the inventors of this thing got a connection or might even be involved in our scene. That official website reminds me too much of Spiral Trax (okay, that really could be just the designer ... but also the cover of that test CompactStick thing on the photo, isn't that the image background of the Bakkelit 2.1 cover?) and psytrance-esque undergroundness... anyway... Overall I think it's cool that there are efforts to make something new since the CD is not an optimal format ... and digital music is also not an optimal format for me because it lacks the physical component, I want to hold something in my hand when I listen to the music, kinda. With the stick they tried to combine the sound quality of digital wav releases with the physical component, which is for itself a good idea. But there are too many disadvantages connected to it. As Basilisk put it, why now combining digital music with the delivery problem of physical music when the files could actually just be downloaded? It's a waste of time, energy and money. The "physical component" is simply not justification enough for that. Furthermore when that problem is mastered and the stick has arrived, there's even more hassle for the people like me who want to listen to the stuff not on the PC, but also on their CD player: they need to burn the stuff to CDr, organize the CDrs and in the end this is double and triple work. And the bonus material simply can't make that up for me. It probably works for the people who made the PC their music base, all music on the PC in form of wav or mp3. And CDs are just the backup, they never touch the CD. For these people, CompactSticks are actually a cool thing! But I don't think there are enough people of that kind to make the format profitable and big...

What I don't really get about it all is why to offer a CompactStick when the same features (extra tracks plus interview or whatnot) could also be achieved by offering a download ... would be cheaper...

Recently I see this new thing striking roots at Psyshop: the CompactStick. Heard of it? It's a 2GB USB flash stick with the sound of a CD album in mp3 and wav format ... plus bonus stuff so that people buy it. Good idea? Maybe. A popular idea? Not yet. I was interested and did a google search about CompactStick and the only real thing I got was the very poor (so to say) looking Compactstick website http://www.compactstick.com/ and a german article in an inventor journal: http://www.erfinderprofi.de/journal/tag/compactstick From that article one can practically conclude, that this CompactStick is something only available to the psy scene ("dance genre", "shops in europe, hongkong and Japan" ... yeah, that's Saikosounds what they mean there!) and that Psyshop seems to play a major promoting role in selling it (since there's an explicit mentioning and link to them). Not really surprising though, since the inventors are german (I'd actually like to know who's behind it ... I speculate they are involved with SpiralTrax in some ways, look at the website, the style ... could be just the designer though) and Psyshop is located there ... what is cool is that the inventors seem to be psy fans, otherwise they probably wouldn't have chosen to do this over Psyshop... Psyshop has now an own Compactstick section. Not many releases there so far, but a few ones ... also the new Atmos one. What I'd like to know is what you people think about this? Will CompactStick really become the successor of the CD? And, of course, is it practical? WAV files offer great sound quality, don't they? And is it eventually possible that this format flows over to other music genres aswell (it's not known in other scenes yet AFAIK, only psytrance)? Might we eventually be able to buy Madonna's next album on CompactStick - an invention that originated in our scene? Would be cool, huh? I personally did choose the CD in the one case where I was able to choose. I don't want a tiny flash drive and then have to burn the stuff to CD only to listen to it on my home stereo. All my releases are CD so far and I still want them to be CD in some way. Otherwise it would disharmonize my collection. Besides Wirikuta (the only shop I order from) doesn't have that format yet. When this gets more popular I might think to invoke an own Compactstick section in my shelf though... What do you say?

ha, I recognize some sounds from the live (the one at 4:00 for example) the second song sounds right outta Leaving Home btw... this is going to be GREAT! Although I think I'll wait with this album until spring ... now it's not Solar Fields time ... walks in the sunny spring air, that is Solar fields time!